January 9

We had MOPS last week, and apparently Lily enjoyed it quite a bit. While I edited pictures and worked on blog posts this morning, Lily was a busy little bee. For 20 minutes she ran back and forth from the play kitchen to the living room, and finally she scampered into the kitchen and proudly announced, "The MOPS party is ready!"

She spread the coffee table with a precisely arranged selection of food, and brought all of her baby dolls out to join the party.

Don't let Daisy's presence fool you; she had nothing to do with setting up this MOPS party. She just saw that Lily did something cool and wanted to be part of it, too. 

I mean, seriously. Look at how she arranged everything! She even put the kids' water bottles on the table, with the caps open.

And she spread out a "tablecloth". It's actually a satin cape that she repurposed. We only use table cloths on very special occasions, so I think it's adorable that she thought to add that little detail.

Thumbs up to Eli.

Look at her sweet little face. Can you tell how proud she is? 

Eli thought it was pretty cool, too!

Completely unrelated:  

After lunch it was time for Eli's nap. The big kids always get to watch 20-30 minutes of TV while I put him down. Today, they watched TV with helmets and rain boots on. I have no idea what Daisy is doing with that paint brush on her lips.

Once Lily was down for her nap, we got to work on school. I ordered a new math curriculum for Caleb; at this point I am leaning toward sending Caleb and Daisy to public school in the fall, so I really want to make sure their academics are up to par. I realized that I do better with structured curricula, so I ordered Saxon 3 for Caleb. While he and I worked on math, Daisy did a little bit on her own. Then she drew this picture of our family on her dry erase board:

I'm the one in the green dress and blue heels. Chris has curly hair, Caleb is the tallest kid, then Daisy and Lily, and Eli has curly hair and green clothes. I thought it was a lovely drawing!

After dinner I went to the gym, then stopped by the grocery store to pick up something special - a half cake. Why? Because today was Caleb's half birthday! He is officially seven and a half years old.

He has been acting weird lately about being seven and a half, so I thought he needed a little celebration.

He wouldn't let us sing "Happy Half Birthday" to him, but I think he still enjoyed it.

My seven and a half year old!

After the kids were in bed, Chris and I headed to the basement and started a new exercise program together. It was ridiculously hard, and I was so thankful to have my strong husband grunting and groaning alongside me.

This is our sweaty post-workout selfie. I am typing this 4 days later, and my legs are STILL sore. It was tough, but I am ready to go back for more!

January 8

Today I stayed home from church and small group to edit my last photo session of 2016. I took the pictures the day after Christmas, but kept waiting for a big chunk of uninterrupted time to work on them and ... that time never came. I promised to deliver them by tomorrow, so finally I had to create that time. Luckily, my husband is wildly supportive and had no problem taking all the kids to church by himself so that I could focus.

When they came home, Lily needed some Mommy snuggles.

Isn't she sweet?

Pretending to sleep.

 

These moments are few and far between, and I'm thankful that she still likes to be worn occasionally!

January 6

My mom has been off work for the past three months after her knee replacement, and she goes back next week. Luckily, we got to spend the morning with her today.

As soon as we arrived, the kids found Mom's collection of nesting dolls. 

They were fascinated!

(Except for Caleb; he went straight to Mom's bookshelf and started reading.)

Lily was particularly focused on the nesting dolls.

Eli tried to play, too, but he didn't know what to do with them.

(He insisted on the Halloween shirt today. He has very strong opinions about his shirts. His current favorites, in order:

1. The baseball shirt

2. The motorcycle shirt

3. The mummy shirt

4. Nothing else. Ever.)

Mom had a bunch of stuff she wanted me to help her go through, so she got out some watercolors to keep the kids occupied.

It worked. They were very focused.

Even Eli participated without making a huge mess!

He was very proud of his work.

Daisy was focused on painting lines.

Among the things Mom went through was a painting kit with a canvas printed with a cardinal design, acrylic paints, brushes, and a palette. Daisy claimed it immediately, and as soon as we got home, she got to work.

I probably shouldn't have let her use adult paints while wearing her darling new dress, but that ship has sailed.

She worked so hard, and was so proud of her work.

See? A masterpiece! She asked Chris to help her hang it on her bedroom wall. I love seeing the pride on her face!

January 5

It snowed today! But we did a whole bunch of other stuff before we went out to play in the snow.

First, Caleb attempted to bond with the cat.

I was actually very proud of him for getting this close to her! She is grouchy and cantankerous, and generally starts hissing and growling as soon as the kids enter the room she's in. But I walked into the room to see Caleb sitting patiently and quietly near Tigerlily. Neither one was freaked out, and I was so very proud of Caleb! Of course, then fearless Eli crawled into the equation and the terrified cat ran off, but still. It was good progress! It has only taken 7.5 years...

Then the big kids did some science from a kit that Caleb got for Christmas.

Today's experiment involved red cabbage powder, water, citric acid, and baking soda. The kids were fascinated at the way the water changed color and bubbled.

I love my little scientists!

(I also love those flowers in the background that Chris picked up for me at Trader Joes. They have the best flowers there!)

Finally, I sent the big kids out to play in the snow. Eli woke up from his nap a short while later, so he joined them.

Goodness - isn't she cute! Also, those exposed wrists tell me that my tall girl is ready for a new winter coat!

This is one happy baby.

I love this boy!

Poor Caleb kept trying to make snowballs, but the snow was too powdery to do anything fun.

And then Daisy just turned mean. Here, she's dumping snow on Eli's head.

Caleb demonstrated the snow slide.

Eli was very excited to get his turn on the snow slide.

He must have taken a bit too long for Daisy's liking, though, because immediately after I snapped this picture, she used her foot to nudge him down the slide. He wasn't prepared, tipped over, went down on his belly, and landed face-first in the snow. Poor baby!

And this was after the neighbor's dog barged into our house and knocked him over as I was bundling him up to go outside. The poor little guy had a rough afternoon!

Luckily, his big brother took pity on him and pulled him around in the sled, and then all was right in his world.

Chris came home for dinner, then headed out with my dad and Ryan to the Blues game to celebrate Ryan's 19th birthday. I still can't believe my nephew is 19 years old!

These were our bedtime selfies.

Caleb was there, too, but his nose was buried in a book and he couldn't be bothered to join us.

We might have sent a few of these to Chris at the game.

Oh - and see the girls in their matching fleece jammies? They finally wore holes in the feet of the ones that Grandmother gave them last Christmas. They were so upset because they love matching and they love fleece, but I was thrilled to find 2 matching sets in their sizes on clearance at Target. Now I have two warm, cozy, matching, and happy girls.

January 4

Sometime after Christmas, I decided to buy a new hair brush for Daisy. Knowing that green is her favorite color, I searched high and low to find a green brush for her. When it arrived a few days ago, my mom helped Lily gift wrap it, and they left it under the Christmas tree for her. 

Daisy was thrilled with the brush, and delighted with the gift-giving process. Today during nap time, she decided to give her singing Elsa doll to Lily. The tree is now put away, so we had to find a different way for Daisy to deliver her gift. We came up with a scavenger hunt, and spent nap time hiding notes all over the house. As soon as Lily woke up, Daisy (and Caleb, who was eager to participate and tried to overtake things a few times) started the hunt.

She gave Lily her first clue, which led her to...

The bathroom. Lily - and the big kids, really - had no idea how a scavenger hunt worked, so it was tricky to explain things to her.

Her next clue was in my bathroom,

then in the TV room,

And finally, Lily found her gift-wrapped present, hidden in the clothes dryer.

Still a bit bewildered, she opened the gift and was so happy that Daisy had decided to be so generous and kind!

Oh, and the kids played the piano together in costumes. Because that's what they do.

(Actually, we were filming a "Happy Birthday" video for Aunt Sally. Happy birthday, Sally!)

January 2

Since today was a bank holiday, Chris got to stay home. Hooray! He is in desperate need of new work shoes, and I don't trust him to go out shopping on his own for some. Thankfully, my mom was willing to come stay with the kids so that Chris and I could go shoe shopping together, and have a dinner date afterward.

Our expedition was a success: we found two pairs of work shoes for Chris, two pairs of casual/business-casual shoes for him, one pair of sneakers for me, and several shirts for Daisy, who is suddenly too tall for many of her 5T shirts. 

Dinner was spur of the moment, and we ended up at a place I had never been to before. They had a killer happy hour, and an enclosed patio with fire pit. We dined on appetizers and wine, and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.

No, Chris isn't on fire. That's the fire pit behind him.

Wine.

What a lovely afternoon/evening. Thanks, Mom!